In 1892, the shareholders of the Ryazan–Uralsk Railroad Company sponsored an expedition to the Trans-Ural steppe region of the Urals and to Ust-Urt for the purpose of determining the type and volume of cargo that could be carried on a projected rail route from Ryazan to Uralsk. The engineer and geologist S.N. Nikitin directed the expedition and prepared this report. Nikitin also investigated the deposits of oil, common salt, and other minerals found along the route. When completed in 1894, the Ryazan–Uralsk Railroad linked the center of ...